


Building Up These Bridges

by misfitmonarchy



Series: Tumblr Drabbles [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A little angst, Gen, Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, One Shot, Pack Feels, Sheriff Stilinski Feels, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 20:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15494475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misfitmonarchy/pseuds/misfitmonarchy
Summary: The number of fights they’d had (even after his dad got his job back) over the obvious lies Stiles was telling to protect the pack were ever on the rise. Stiles was actually impressed that his father hadn’t made him piss in a cup yet and blamed it on drugs.No no, not drugs. Just werewolves.Or the one where Stiles is exhausted with guilt over lying to his dad and Lydia is an unexpected shoulder to lean on





	Building Up These Bridges

**Author's Note:**

> Super short piece I had on tumblr for a while and thought I'd post. I would like to continue it another day but for now this is where it'll sit. Let me know what you think!

“Is there something you want to tell me, son?” The Sheriff asks, and from the look on his face Stiles can already tell that nothing he says will be believed anyways. 

He heaves a sigh and shakes his head to his father. It’s nights like these, right before his dad is leaving for a long shift that Stiles wishes he could just tell him what was going on. To please  _please_  stay home. Don’t go out there,  _there’s monsters out there_. 

Instead his father just gives him the same disappointed frown that seems to have been stuck on his face ever since the kanima. Granted his father didn’t  _know_  about the part of it being a murderous lizard disguised as Jackson Whittemore being controlled by a psycho kid at their school named Matt who was then killed for control over said lizard by Gerard Argent and- 

Yeah. It was complicated as hell. But to the sheriff it was his son getting himself in a hell of a lot danger and trouble while there had been a serial killer on the loose. 

The number of fights they’d had (even after his dad got his job back) over the obvious lies Stiles was telling to protect the pack were ever on the rise. Stiles was actually impressed that his father hadn’t made him piss in a cup yet and blamed it on drugs. 

No no, not drugs. Just  _werewolves._

“I’ll be gone until morning, if you need anything just call the station.” He doesn’t say anything else as he leaves. 

“Love you, too…” Stiles says softly to the empty doorway with the weight of the world on his chest. It’s best this way, no matter what Scott says, for his dad not to know about this. Scott doesn’t understand, his mother isn’t charged with protecting everyone in Beacon Hills like John Stilinski, long time sheriff and even longer time resident of the town. His dad had grown up here and as such he knew almost every single person here. 

How was it expected of Stiles to flip everything on its head just like that? He couldn’t do that to his dad- who would torture himself with all the ‘ _what ifs’_  and probably go head to head with the supernatural world. Stiles couldn’t. 

He already lost one parent, he wasn’t going to chance losing the other. 

That night he broods on the couch with only a bag of chips to soothe the guilt that was eating him from the inside out. At least there hadn’t been any incidents lately that could make the situation worse. In fact, since Jackson had confronted the issues of transformation and fully became a werewolf, the pack was more organized now that it ever had been. And if Stiles still woke up some nights mid-panic from nightmares of Gerard, no one was the wiser. 

Erica and Boyd had limped back to their alpha but up until recently Stiles hadn’t heard from them. In fact he hadn’t seen much of Derek, Peter or any of the werewolves of Beacon Hills other than Scott and Isaac much at all. 

Stiles had no idea where he even stood among all the chaos at this point. Was he pack? Was he not? Was he even privy to werewolf things now that everything had calmed down? 

That thought made the anxiety churn in his stomach. What if all this time since then, when Lydia had calmed Jackson down- what if they’d all just been meeting up without him? He was, after all, only human. 

He couldn’t resist calling up Scott, who put most of his anxiety to rest. 

“Why would you even think that? I’d never lie to you dude.” Stiles felt the need to bring up how Scott  _had_  actually lied before. But that would not only start a fight between them, but Stiles would probably end up admitting how he was still having issues trusting him again. 

“I dunno.” He says instead, picking at his ratty sweat pants. The food network in the background is reading out the winning contestants of some challenge show he hadn’t really been paying attention to. 

“You’re pack. If anything was going on, I’d tell you. Is everything alright?” 

“Yeah.” He hums and decides to throw Scott a bone, it was only fair since he’d made the guy worried now. “Yeah Scott, I’m fine. It’s just my dad, y’know? Things are all weird between us now. He knows something is going on, he keeps giving me that  _look.”_

“The one where he screws up his mouth all ‘ _I’m the Sheriff’_?”

“Yeah.”

“Dude.” Only Scott could make that sound so comforting. “Should we tell him?”

“No way! We’ve went over this, Scott! It’ll only make it worse. Plus- I can’t risk that. He’s all I have.”

The silence on the other line reminds him that Melissa is all Scott has too. And yet it’s not exactly true. His dad isn’t  _dead_  but he  _is_  and ass. Other than that though, Scott has the pack and beyond that if something truly devastating happened; Stiles is certain that other packs would take Scott in. A human on the other hand? Yeah… Probably not. 

“Why don’t we hang out then? Tomorrow night? You, me and Isaac?” 

“Yeah. Yeah okay. Thanks, Scotty.”

“Always here for you bro.” It makes Stiles smile as he says goodbye. 

Scott always knew how to put his worries to rest- even if the thoughts were still a bit fitful in the back of his head. For now he focused back in on the show- where some lady from Texas just won a million dollars for a dish that has more syllables than Stiles’ birth name. 

***

Plans that were supposed to be just Scott, Stiles and Isaac evolve into Erica and Boyd, Scott, Stiles and Isaac and then evolve further to involving everyone in the pack. They agree to meet at Derek’s apartment- something that Stiles was both very curious about and a little annoyed about. 

He’d wanted just a little hang out with Scott and by proxy, Isaac. Now he had to actually shower and put on clean clothing before leaving his house because he was sure he’d be judged by the others. Scott had just gotten used to Stiles’ mess. 

“Oh stop with the sighing and get in already.” It was Lydia who came to pick him up. He wanted to argue but hey-  _it was Lydia Martin_. In his driveway. Telling him, Stiles Stilnski, to get in her car. How the  _hell_  was he supposed to turn that down? 

“No need to berate a guy.” He mutters as he climbs in. Jackson isn’t with her, and he raises a brow. Lydia doesn’t live nearby which means not only did she go out of her way to pick him up, but had probably insisted on coming alone. 

“Stiles.” She greets before throwing the car into reverse to back out of the drive. “I wanted to talk to you, before we got there. And I haven’t seen you since…” They both let silence fill the  _Since my boyfriend slaughtered a bunch of people and I somehow resurrected Peter Hale_

 _“_ Don’t worry about it.” Stiles says after a moment, finding the quiet to be suffocating. He only gives her a half glance before noticing how tightly Lydia is gripping the wheel. They’re driving passed the gas station when she finally says what she seemed to be holding in. 

“Thank you.” Stiles does a bit of a double take. 

“For what?” He asks stupidly, stunned that  _The_  Lydia Martin was thanking him and he couldn’t even supply a reason why should would do so. 

“You brought me to Jackson. Helped me after… when I went on a mental vacation.” She answers and it rings true. He can see she’s stiff still, probably has been the whole time if Stiles had been looking close enough. 

“Oh. Of course. You know I’d do anything for you.” It’s out of his mouth before he can stop it- and suddenly he wishes that he had that suffocating silence back from earlier. At least then he hadn’t been saying  _stupid things_. 

She casts him a pitying look as they reach the apartment building. She parks her car but leaves it running as she looks over to Stiles. “Stiles…”

“Don’t- I.. I know you’re with Jackson. I get it. Just um..”

“Stiles.” She says again, and it’s so gentle and sweet. His heart skips a beat and hammers into double time at it. Her hand is on his shoulder and it’s the closest he’s been to Lydia without being in a life/death scenario. He’s struck with how much he loves her. How hard she makes his heart pound. “It’s alright. I’d be an idiot if I didn’t know.” She says in that same gentle tone. This is a Lydia that has until very recently- been hidden behind a curtain. After her reputation as the  _it girl_  at school had been ruined, she’d come out into the light. No longer hiding the person behind the prada. 

“I know that you love Jackson.” He says, because he feels like he has to. If not for her, to understand he’s not expecting anything; then for himself. To remind him that this was Lydia reaching out to bridge their weird relationship and possibly build something other than one sided pining. 

“I do. Very much. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t.. that I don’t see you Stiles.” His heart swells so hard that he actually thinks he might be having a heart attack for a few seconds. “I want us to be friends though. If you want to try?” He knows an olive branch when he sees one and he grasps to it like he’s dying. 

“Yeah- Yes. I…That would- I want to.” She always did have a way of stealing Stiles’ words. 

She smiles and drops her hand from where it had been on his shoulder. The air feels like it can finally enter his lungs without choking him again. Lydia kills the engine and steps out. “Now then- I’m interested to see inside Derek’s apartment. I have a feeling it’ll need a little work, and if this is going to become the official pack hangout spot; then I need to know what I’m working with.” 

Stiles laughs at the idea of Derek letting Lydia redesign his barren apartment as he follows her up to the loft. 

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to COMMENT, leave KUDOS 
> 
> i'm [misfitmonarchythings](https://misfitmonarchythings.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


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